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FACTBOX-Italy's Tremonti slams globalisation-book excerpts

Reuters - Thursday, May 8

"1989, with the fall of the Berlin Wall, marked the crisis of both communism and liberalism. Both were substituted by a new ideology: 'marketism', (the philosophy embracing unbridled market forces) - May 7 - Italy's new Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti published a book shortly before the April election in which he attacked globalisation and made proposals to avert a grim future for Europe.

Following are some passages from Tremonti's book, "The Fear and the Hope," which is a best-seller in Italy.

ON GLOBALISATION

"In Europe the fairy tale of globalisation, the 'cornucopia' of the 21st century, is finished."

"As we have seen with many other revolutions, globalisation was prepared by the 'enlightened' and put into practice by fanatics."

"Globalisation has already presented its first bill in the form of the price shock and inflation. But this is only the beginning, because globalisation is starting to present other bills: the bill of the financial crisis; the bill of the environmental disaster; the bill of geopolitical tensions that are accumulating in the world, ready to unleash themselves."

In Europe, with globalisation "those who were already badly off will be even worse off. Things are better only for those who were already the better off."

ON GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS

"What, in August 2007, experts, central bank governors and economists were calling simply 'turbulence', is now showing itself for what it really is: a crisis with a capital C. A crisis which is not cyclical but structural, not limited to finance but extended to the real economy, not limited to the United States but extended to Europe."

ON MARKETS, TRADE

"1989, with the fall of the Berlin Wall, marked the crisis of both communism and liberalism. Both were substituted by a new ideology: 'marketism', (the philosophy embracing unbridled market forces), the last madness of the 20th century."

"The communist utopia has been substituted by the 'marketist' utopia ... the battle against marketism remains a very difficult but necessary battle. A battle we need to begin."

"The causes of job market insecurity are not internal (to Europe) but external. They are globalisation and marketism."

"We need a vision that, unlike the marketist one, does not demonise the State and the public dimension. 'Market if possible, government if necessary.'"

"From the world would never be the same ...a single market, a huge error. Never in the history of humanity has a political process as significant as the one begun with the WTO, the opening of the world to the market, been allowed and launched with such superficial haste."

"Europe has been the high priest and zealot of the single world market and in this way has been both the architect and the victim of its own destiny."

ON EUROPE'S FUTURE

"As a result of marketism, of the policy of not having policies except the market, Europe will be poorer and weaker."

"Europe will be colonised from outside, by younger, more determined peoples, because marketism has paved the way to a new era ... It will be the sunset on old Europe, on our culture, our traditions, our history. In a word, on our civilisation."

PROPOSALS TO AVERT EUROPE'S DECLINE

Europe must:

* Exclude from the Stability Pact's 3 percent of GDP deficit ceiling "all spending aimed at helping families," including welfare payments and tax benefits.

* Impose a special value added tax, or import duties, on goods from countries which do not respect new, internationally agreed standards in terms of workers rights and the environment.

* Switch the bulk of taxation "from people to things," meaning revenues in future must come mainly from indirect taxes, rather than direct ones.

* Issue bonds at the EU level to fund "a European plan of public and private investment in strategic sectors for growth."

* Halt "the indiscriminate and masochistic use of anti-trust and anti-state aid instruments."

* Ban the activities of sovereign funds in Europe.

* Impose no, or minimal taxation on foreign investment in industry sectors and geographic regions that are key for growth.

* Give the European parliament full legislative power on all areas which are already under the aegis of the EU Commission.

* Introduce a European plan for nuclear power.

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